Culture Podcast: Imma Let You Finish, But We Need to Talk About Kanye

Kanye West performed as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on February 13, 2016. NBC/Getty Images

So Kanye West sort of released an album last weekend. It’s called The Life of Pablo and it’s pretty good. We only say that he “sort of” released it because, well, he put it on music service Tidal on Saturday and while initially it was offered as a stream and $20 download, West later removed the download and since then its distribution has consisted of some streaming and a lot of illicit downloads. In true Kanye West fashion, this entire debacle has been accompanied by a Twitter storm. He also appeared on Saturday Night Live.

Podcast

And that is only about half of what happened in the world of pop culture in the last week. West’s fellow Outspoken Individual, Deadpool, also had a big weekend, making $150 million in the US alone at the box office. And if that wasn’t enough, the Grammys happened on Monday night and delivered a truly dynamic performance from Kendrick Lamar and a mic-drop moment from his fellow multiple-Grammy-winning friend Taylor Swift.

Needless to say, we have a lot too talk about on this week’s episode of The Monitor. Editors and writers Peter Rubin, Angela Watercutter, and K.M. McFarland are here and ready to gab about all of it for you. Sit back, hit Pause on Life of Pablo, and enjoy.

A few helpful links for things we talk about in the podcast:

-Emma Grey Ellis’ piece on Deadpool’s crazy marketing
-James Gunn’s Facebook post on why Hollywood will learn all the wrong lessons from Deadpool’s success
-Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld talking about why Cable should be the next of his characters to hit the big screen
-WIRED’s roundup of five Deadpool comics you should read
-Brian Raftery’s story on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo
-Lady Gaga’s collaboration with Intel for her Grammys tribute to David Bowie
-Pitchfork’s review of The Life of Pablo
–The New York Times’review of The Life of Pablo
-Angela Watercutter’s TV Fact-Checker piece on Vinyl executive producer Terence Winter
-1520 Sedgwick Avenue, New York City: location of the birth of turntablism